Sketch

I'm working hard on my next Hawaiian goddess, but she isn't quite ready yet. I hit a bit of a wall with her this evening, so I took a break and did this quick sketch. Loosely based on Liv Tyler. Loosely:)

I promise to have more exciting posts this week, and Wondercon is coming up! Yay!

Love.

A little something I worked on this week for a wedding save-the-date. I have been super busy, and thus slacked on getting my first post out. But no worries, I'll get the second one in later today. Happy weekend:)

New Sketchbook + Studies

Well, this sketchbook isn't all THAT new.


I've had this Fabriano for at least the last six months, but I haven't paid much attention to it. I still have a few pages left to fill in my Fabriano from last year and have been slacking on my figure drawing attendance which is the bulk of what I put in these babies. But today my new one got a shiny new cover/binding! Hooray! Fabrianos typically have pretty flimsy covers, so I took some scrap board and fabric and gave it a little extra protection and style.


And in honor of the new look of the outside of the book, I thought I should probably display a bit of the inside. Here is a little watercolor of the Notre Dame Cathedral in Paris. Having the opportunity to paint this remarkable place was really a dream come true.

And here is a teeny-tiny color study I did this evening for my next Hawaiian goddess painting. I would have liked to spend a bit more time on her this weekend, but I have been busy with a few other projects. More on her to come, but until then, have a happy week!

Megan Fox with someone!

Ostrich Peak

I ran up Ostrich Peak this morning, for the second time this week. Ostrich is a perfect example of the fantastic trail/mountain running opportunities that Ashland provides. I live literally 1 1/2 blocks from Ashland's downtown Plaza (yes, Ashland has a plaza; after spending time in the Southwest, I love it when a town has a pedestrian-ish area at its center a la Santa Fe), and the uphill begins less than 100 yards from my front doorstep. After 5 minutes of running, the route takes a right turn onto Strawberry Lane and this is where life gets strenuous. Strawberry climbs at a 20+% grade for a good quarter mile or so, and there's really not another stretch of truly flat trail until the summit of Ostrich at 4700', five miles and nearly 3000 vertical feet later.

The run up this morning was classic Ashland. In the pre-dawn darkness, town was enveloped in a cloud of thick fog, but within 300 vertical feet I was out of the fog and the temperature rose significantly, to 50+ degrees F. The route up Ostrich involves Hitt Road (really a single track trail) and then a turn onto the even steeper Mystical Trail. Here's shot of some typical tread up there (Photo Credit: drjeff).

The top of Ostrich--as with any climb--is the real treat. Now, in the middle of January, there were just a couple small patches of snow, and the view to the east is phenomenal. One can see past Grizzly Peak (6000', on the other side of Bear Creek) to the stunning conical profile of the snow-covered 9500' Mt. McLoughlin (it's much more imposing in real life than it appears in this photo). Additionally, some of the snow-covered pointy Cascades near the Crater Lake area are visible. (Photo Credit: drjeff)

Having a run like this right out my front doorstep (one of many possibilities, but the most imposing peak as seen from Main Street) makes me think of Scott Elliott and his "every day, lots of vertical" approach. I'm not going to be going for 100 summits in 100 days any time soon, but I do plan on getting up there 3-5 days every week.

Dance!

The first mermaids of the New Year. Actually, I think I started sketching her way back in August, but I haven't had a chance to finish painting her until today. I would love to do two more in this series of flamenco-ish sirens, so stay tuned for that. These three, along with my other original mermaid paintings will be coming with me to Wondercon in February if anyone is interested. The goal is to have at least 20-25 of these small originals with me at Wondercon, wo we will see how that goes.

And what the heck, I'll post 'em to IF this week. These watercolors are pretty tiny (about 5x6 inches), so I'd say she is quite contained. Contained, perhaps, but not tame. This one has got some fire in her for sure.

Sketchcrawl #21!

Dave and I joined a small group in Golden Gate Park yesterday for Sketchcrawl #21 and we had such a great time. I'm almost embarrassed to admit it, but it really was the first time in over two years of living in the Bay Area that I have been able to spend any time in the Haight/Golden Gate Park at all. Such an great area! We spent a good amount of time sketching at "Hippie Hill" before meeting all of the other crawlers at the De Young Museum, and boy were there some fantastic characters to be seen there. Alex (hackey-sacking above and below) was one of us, but everyone else was spotted either on Hippie Hill or the immediately surrounding area and hastily scribbled in my sketchbook:

the original sketchbook drawing of Alex

Hardcore biker dude.
Hippie girl with awesome hair.
Hula hooping chick who was not pleased when she caught me drawing her.I loooved her cut-out shirt.

Well, I just made it for my first week of "two posts a week", and I'm a bit worn out. Tune sometime in the next seven days for two more exciting posts! Until then, have a great week everybody!

2009

Prompted by an internet blogging "tag" to divulge my 2009 racing plans, I return to posting. Although I haven't done any recent racing, I did finish out the year with a couple of crewing roles for friends at races in the Bay Area. These events gave me a newfound appreciation that I hope to carry forward when people are crewing for me in the future. Furthermore, both Erik's and Kyle's performances were inspiring for the kind of racing I hope to be doing in the coming year.

I'm heading into 2009 with a thought to learning some lessons from my (lack of a real) 2008 racing season. Basically, I hope to focus on a few key races where I have a good, long, gradual build-up in training for each one instead of constantly always cramming trying to get in shape. Hopefully, with a few less miles and some smarter decisions on my part, I will be more consistently healthy. In 2008 I ran 5162 miles, which was only about a dozen miles less than the year before, but I was, yet again, almost completely out of running for four of the 12 months of the year. That has to change.

Because of the possibilities of injuries and other life circumstances, I've only 100% committed financially and mentally to one race so far this year: the Western States 100. Barring any natural disasters (and injury) that should be one heckuva fun day of racing. Plenty of prognostication has already occurred elsewhere on the Internets regarding that event, so I won't go much further than to say I will be completely focused on running as well as possible there this year.

Other semi-focus races I am considering are either the Leona Divide 50 or the Zane Grey 50 in April. The main determining factor there will be whether I will have moved back to Colorado by April or not. Running and working in Ashland is pretty hard to beat, especially this time of year when most of Colorado is suffering through snow and cold temperatures. Right now there is more than 3000' of snow-free, singletrack vertical out my front door (woodchip paths within about 2 minutes of jogging) and the daily highs are typically in the 40s or even 50s. However, I love Colorado and once the weather mellows out a bit there, I know I'll be itching to get back to the higher altitudes.

I would also love to return to the Leadville 100 again this year. I still feel that faster times are still waiting to be had there, and hopefully a return to Colorado for graduate school in the fall will make Leadville a logical race choice (assuming post-WS recovery goes well).

Other than that, I'm really just going to play it by ear. In the meantime, I'm going to keep enjoying all that southern Oregon has to offer.

Hello 2009!

After slacking off during the last few weeks of '08, I am now back to the old grindstone. I apologize for my absence!
For the first post of 2009, here is my entry for this week's IF topic - "Resolve". I have a feeling that 2009 is going to be great, and I have lots of resolutions all ready to go, but the main one that pertains to this blog is that I just really want to be drawing and posting more. Lets say twice a week? Sound good? Okay, so this is #1. I've been working on a Can-can dancer at work, and now I just can't get them out of my head. It didn't help that I came home tonight and watched Moulin Rouge (twice) while working on this. Oh, what I would give to be in the chorus/dance team for just one of those numbers. If I had my pick, it would be "El Tango de Roxanne", but really anything would do.
Speaking of Moulin Rouge - did I mention that I was actually there? That I actually visited the Moulin Rouge in Paris? I did! As this new year starts to ramp up, I have to tip my hat to 2008. When all is said and done, I can't complain. I got to visit Las Vegas, London, Oxford, and Paris. I drove down to San Diego and had a blast at my first Comic Con. I spent two weeks at home on the lake. Dave and I adopted the most awesomest cat ever. I was able to be there for my good friends' autumn wedding and was also able to welcome a new commando into the world (yeah, Baby Joe!). I hosted my first convention table at APE and started and Etsy shop! I even embarrassed the heck out of myself at a pole dancing class. Geeze, no wonder I was tired.
There will surely be a lot happening in 2009 as well, and the first thing on my horizon is Wondercon! Yep, Bill and I will be hosting a table in the Small Press area. More details to follow, but I am extremely excited! Have a great week everybody!